Anyone who wants to be a
writer has to be a reader. I cannot
imagine a wannabe writer who never reads. Do composers never listen to music?
Do artists not look at paintings?
Surprising for someone who
writes mysteries, my own reading taste is all over the place. I go more by the voice or how it sounds.
Typically I can tell within the first paragraph if I’m going to like the book.
And it’s books that got me
interested in writing—the promise of adventure, the chance to be somewhere I
could never go and do things beyond my limitations. Books are what hooked me
into spending my evenings and weekends plunking at the keyboard and weaving
mysteries. I give you here a list of ten
books that influenced my writing.
1. The
Time Machine by H.G.
Wells
2. The
Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K.
Rowling
3. In
the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead by James Lee Burke
4. The
Bad Beginning or, Orphans!
by Lemony Snicket
5. Casino
Royale by Ian Fleming
6. Interview
with the Vampire by Ann
Rice
7. Hound
of the Baskervilles by
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
8. 1984 by George Orwell
9. The
Poisonwood Bible by
Barbara Kingsolver
1. The
Shining by Stephen King
Some
of the books listed here I read as a teenager, including the James Bond
thrillers. While some may argue that Bond doesn’t fit in with fine literature,
the books are still selling well on Amazon. Also, I give credit to Ann Rice who
reintroduced the vampire with fresh material back in the 80’s. Anyone wanting
to learn the art of suspense needs to read King. He can spend pages slowly
ratcheting up a terrifying moment. I mention The Poisonwood Bible because Kingsolver did such a wonder job writing
multiple first person point-of-views. And I include Burke because of his
excellent Dave Robicheaux murder mysteries.
I
saved talking about Lemony Snicket until last. While writing the first two
Penelope mysteries, his books were top on my reading list. First he did what most writers were told not
to do. He would make aside comments to
reader and do it quite well. Second, the things I loved about his books were
the over-the-top quirky characters.
Probably that influenced the Penelope series the most. The characters you’ll run into in Penelope and The Movie Star and the
other books are a bit different, bigger than life, but always fun.
April 20 Guest Blog
The Creatively Green Write at Home Mom
April 21 Character Guest Blog
Butterfly-o-Meter Books
April 23 Guest blog and review
Lissette E. Manning
April 24 Promo and review
Storm Goddess Book Reviews & More-
April 25 Promo and Interview
JeanzBookReadNReview
April 26 Guest Blog
Fang-tastic Books
April 27 Guest blog and review
Reviews By Molly
PENELOPE AND THE MOVIE STAR
By Ron D Voigts
Age Level: Mid Grade Mystery (tween)
Blurb
To complicate matters, the school has a new cook, and Penelope’s friend Raddy thinks Chef Judy is trying to poison them. The new girl at school steals away everyone’s friends. As always Principal Merriweather keeps finding new ways to expel her. Between trying to get her friends back, starving and keeping away from the killer, she has her hands full in this next Penelope Mystery.
Penelope and The Birthday Curse http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005561FZI
Penelope and The Ghost's Treasure http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005P94IGI
Penelope and The Movie Star http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0077UX7LU
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Biography
Ron D. Voigts lives in Raleigh, NC and sometimes somewhere else. When back in Raleigh, he enjoys time with his family, watches old movies and shoots lots of pool. He has his own private writer's retreat in La Vale, MD where he spends lots of time working on his next novel while enjoying the mountains and eating ice cream.
Media Links
Twitter: @RonDVoigts
http://rondvoigts.blogspot.com
http://www.penelopemystery.com
http://www.facebook.com/penelopemystery
Giveaway is a Smashwords code for
Penelope and The Ghost’s Treasure
(Ron will later send a coupon for Penelope and The Movie Star once it becomes available on Smashwords)
If you would like to win these two books please leave a comment with your email address
I love this banner Beckie from Bittersweet Enchantment made
(she also happens to be Ron's daughter :-)
Posts
5 comments:
I love your list of books. I think I have read most of them. Great post!
debby236 at gmail dot com
Great list!
Yvette
yratpatrol@aol.com
Just wanted to say thank you for hosting this stop on the PENELOPE AND THE MOVIE STAR blog tour. I appreciate the opportunity to tell your readers a bit about myself.
Good list, Ron. I've read 7 of them (well 6, I read a different Burke book). Best of luck. keep on writing.
Very nice list.
bn100candg(at)hotmail(dot)com
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